


Always Beside Me

by SpyderScully



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 04
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-28
Updated: 2014-11-28
Packaged: 2018-02-27 08:51:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2686694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyderScully/pseuds/SpyderScully
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mulder tells Scully how he really sees her as his partner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always Beside Me

She was reading, her head bowed down over a book he had seen her looking at before but had forgotten the title to. Was she actually absorbing what her eyes were glossing over, or was she as lost in thought as he was at this moment?

Another case had been completed, leaving only more questions unanswered than when they had started. Once again Mulder felt the misty concoction of mild satisfaction and restlessness that always followed these experiences. Another treasure polished from within the ground, another Pandora’s box thrown dramatically open, another secret wrestled from within its binds. Yet it was like a flow chart that never ended; one option just led to three others. And five other choices from there.

Now he looked at his partner in his hotel room (never mind that she had her own), curled against the love seat and reading. Her face was unreadable save for a soft but intense gaze that signified her concentration. Her index and middle fingers clumsily fiddled with her crimson hair, a small crease between her brows as her mind furrowed deeper into the story in which it was absorbed.

"Scully…" His voice was hesitant, as if the moment he spoke his throat regretted it and was trying to pull the two syllables back into his voice box.

She glanced up at him, and he was surprised at the thought that she might have just been waiting for him to talk to her. The way their minds worked though, he mused silently, the fact that she anticipated his behavior shouldn’t surprise him at all.

"Scully, do you…do you ever regret this?"

He wasn’t specific. He didn’t have to be, she knew what he meant. She set her book down and although she was several feet away from him, he swore he could feel her take a breath. She pondered his question for barely five seconds.

"There are…moments I regret, Mulder. There are situations that I wish could have ended differently."

He felt his chest clench as she spoke, her words swelling and dipping down into the space between them as his infallible mind combed through every possible situation either of them could be thinking of. He sensed—or rather, he hoped—there was a “but” somewhere.

"However," her voice had grown softer. Silkier. Had it been any other moment he would have gotten goosebumps.

"However," she repeated, "I have never regretted my choice to stand behind you."

Her eyes had risen to his now, crystal spheres of intensity and clarity. She was so serious he had to grin.

"Scully, you’ve never stood behind me."

Her brow twitched and her mouth was open to retort when he interrupted her, his voice as soft as hers had been a moment ago.

"You’ve always stood beside me."


End file.
